December 31, 2012

Pencil safe for Soapy Smith?

Pencil safeJeff Smith collection

(Click image to enlarge)

t is a well-established fact that Soapy Smith wrote an enormous amount of letters during his lifetime. He also kept daily notes in notebooks and made notations on business cards he collected. Some of these scribblings are in ink (another post for the future) but many are in pencil, away from home and sometimes from civilization. It seems rather logical to assume that he carried a pencil on his person, rather than constantly asking and hoping others had one he could borrow. Today, we take pencils and writing paper for granted as most households have drawers filled with them. Looking at the Soapy Smith collection of documents there is one known surviving sample of business stationary for the Tivoli Club in Denver but the greater portion of the letters are written on the business stationary of other firms, justifying the fact that Soapy was probably not at home when writing the many of his letters.

Did Soapy carry a pencil? If he did he probably picked up, or was given, a "pencil safe" like the one shown above. The safe protected the sharpened pencil lead from breaking, as well as protected the clothing, other documents, and the body itself, from puncture. I had never given Soapy writing utensils much thought until I saw and purchased the one shown. Any opinions on this?

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Jefferson R. Smith

Alias Soapy Smith(1860-1898)

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Welcome to the history blog of the Soapy Smith Preservation Trust and Friends of Bad Man Soapy Smith. This site is an extension of my book, Alias Soapy Smith, the Life and Death of a Scoundrel, with the purpose of publishing new research, correcting mistakes and spotlight items of interest regarding American bad man, Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith. Comments and questions are welcome.

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